


The Snake's Curse

by motherofmajesticflapflaps



Category: Tiger's Curse Series - Colleen Houck
Genre: F/M, Minor Violence, OCs - Freeform, Possible sex chapters later, there’s so much swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 16:30:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14288919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motherofmajesticflapflaps/pseuds/motherofmajesticflapflaps
Summary: Ren and Kelsey had figured that they were finished with the supernatural and curses, that they could just finally have a normal dating/married life. But when an old friend of Kishan's pops up in Costa Rica asking for their help to break his girlfriend's curse they are suddenly thrown back into the world of myths and legends once again. But this time? It's got a bit of Latin flair. OC's are used and first person POV as well.





	1. What Came To Be

**Author's Note:**

> Hello special shout out to my beta reader Dr_Floofers! I thought of this while I was on my post-B.A. degree trip to Costa Rica back in January. So a lot of this is going to be based on that and the myths and legends are mainly from that region (yay research!) The timeline is post Tiger's Destiny but before Tiger's Dream (as I'm still reading it). And if you hate references to pop culture or other things I am so sorry. Enjoy!

The sunlight had filtered through the leaves of the dense canopy and weakly to the forest floor of the jungle. While the sunlight was strong in the canopy and the tops of the trees, the dense foliage of the forest and the clouds made the jungle floor feel humid and muggy. It was a bit dark in comparison as well but the air here was fragrant and heavy with its many smells. Those scents mainly being that of rain soaked earth, flowering plants and other vegetation, and the scent of animal scat and what could only be described as the scent of a tropical rain forest in Costa Rica. 

Not that either of the hikers were aware of these scents…a part from the scents of the flowering plants of course, but that was only when they pressed their faces close to the bud of the flowers and inhaled the fragrance. The hikers in question were non-natives of the country. The female was standing at the height of 5’8, had blonde hair, and grey eyes her frame (and tanned skin) had suggested that she had spent a fair amount of time outdoors. And that she hadn’t skipped leg day at the gym. The male was taller than her at 6’3, and had wild curly black hair, lovely dark skin, brown eyes, and several tribal tattoos that were on his back and shoulders. 

“Terius! Look a cave! Let’s go in and explore!” The girl, Chess Bishop squealed. 

‘Here we go again.’ Terius Acaso thought. 

“Chess maybe this isn’t the best idea right now.” Terius said. 

“And why not?” Chess huffed. 

“Well for one I didn’t see any mention of caves around the hiking trails of this jungle, two there could be huge ass cave spiders and you know I hate those! And third this is totally white people shit.” 

“You know you’re half white and half Samoan. Your ancestors sailed in small wooden boats like something out of Moana!” 

“I know nothing of sailing! Or surfing!” Terius countered. 

He was about to form more arguments and have the words spew out of his mouth that would utterly, and irrevocably convince her that they should not enter the damned cave and would have them continue on the hiking trail. But Terius was pulled out of his imaginary arguments when he heard his girlfriend say “Hurry up I’ll protect you from the spiders too!” 

Terius smacked his forehead with his palm and followed, hating himself more and more as he walked into what seemed like the first five minutes of a Supernatural episode. 

“Of course you don’t listen!” He growled. 

“Come on, where is your sense of adventure Terius?” Chess’ voice bounced along the cavern walls. 

“Back at the hipster cabin AirBnB.” He grumbled and sped ahead then grabbed a hold of Chess’ hand. 

They were both grateful that they were wearing pants and long sleeves as the cave was rather cold and damp. After walking for what felt like a few miles Chess’ flashlight had caught something shiny, she had let go of his hand as she kneeled down to examine the object and pick it up. It was a statue of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl or the Feathered Serpent. As soon as Chess had snatched it up a loud and cold voice commanded her to drop it. 

But Chess, being the stubborn dingus she was, refused, instead she asked “Why?” 

The cavern room had lit up as they both took in what was an impossible sight. Terius and Chess had figured either they were tripping on some drugs (not likely as they didn’t do any), or were sharing the same delusion (possible). The room was filled with both treasure and the remains of other more unfortunate hikers. From a chair that seemed more extra than comfortable a man clad in magnificent bright robes and jewels sat in front of them. 

“Because it is mine to do with as I please.” He replied coolly. His eyes were so dark a brown they were black. And Terius wanted to grip Chess’ shoulder as a way to tell her to shut the fuck up. Chess didn’t have common sense or the voice in her head that told her to back it on up, and quit. 

“Oh sure as if you don’t have enough treasure around you dude.” 

“I don’t like thieves.” The man snarled.

“Who says I’d steal it?” Chess snapped. 

“I say so and as such you shall be punished as I see fit.” 

“Oh I quiver with fear.” Chess laughed. 

‘This is not the best time to quote ‘The Lion King’.’ Terius thought. 

Chess’ laugh had then turned into a yelp as she fell to her knees and clutched at her hair. She felt a pain and as if her whole body was in the throes of a fever. 

“What the hell have you done?!” Terius shouted. 

“Punished her.” The Shaman replied smugly as if he were a little boy caught misbehaving and knew he wouldn’t get into trouble. 

“How?” That was the only word Terius could get out. 

“She will become a snake of this country and even retain their many abilities even as a human. Her curse will be only at night.” 

“How can we lift this curse?” 

“You are to bring me some water from a fountain, research the folktales of this land. I have been trapped here in this cave for too long and I want out.” 

Terius would have rather told him to shove it, but he was desperate for more information. Chess was curled u upon the stone floor sobbing and screaming in pain.

“And how are we to find this if it is in another world?” He asked. 

The Shaman wore an evil smile. 

“Ah I knew you had a touch of the supernatural about you. You must find the Flooded Forest. That is the entry way find the fountain when you surface, oh and there will be guide dogs to help you but many monsters of sorts.” 

Typical. Terius wanted to get away from the supernatural and just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in...as if he was in the Mafia, or a gang. 

“Fine I accept.” 

“Oh goody. You have three weeks to accomplish this. Then you are to find me here again.” Then with a snap of the Shaman’s fingers he and his riches had vanished. 

Chess was still in the thralls of pain, her nose had been reduced to little and iridescent scales covered her skin. Terius wiped her damp forehead and cheeks, then picked her up and carried her. 

“Hang on Chess, just please hang on.” He ran back to the rental car as he put her in the passenger’s side. He pulled up his email and started it to an old friend he had met years ago in Goa. 

“I know someone who can help. Even if I use all my data just for this it’ll be worth it.” Chess had just transformed when he had hit “Send”.

Notes: Okay explaining time! Chess and Terius are mine and Dr_Floofers characters we made up for a Mass Effect role play, but then we made Terius human in others. I'm not sure who thought of making him a Pacific Islander first...maybe it was my love tattoos? ANYWAY. Costa Rica is hella pretty and actually pretty cheap to travel to, provided you have the passport and the flights, the thing that set me back the most? Travel vaccines. Seriously like $400 bucks down the drain. R.I.P. my savings, but I didn't get Yellow Fever, typhoid, or malaria.  
And yes I did stay in a hipster AirBnB cabin in the mountains it was a farm. And the views were awesome! It was called Finica Orangica which I'll talk about in the next chapter.  
Quetzalcoatl is an old Aztec god who's the god of rain, weather, and arts and crafts. And he's my favorite Old God for a reason, I mean he's a big fuck you dragon how is that not metal AF?


	2. The Email

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hazzah it seems that one of our main POV females has come on to the scene! I will be explaining things about the country either within the chapters themselves or in the end notes.

Kelsey. 

The email had appeared in my inbox the same as any of them did, deleting the stupid spam and ads (why the hell would anyone want a Russian mail order bride anyway? It seemed like a lazy and way too desperate attempt to meet girls…) but then I had seen another one that caught my attention. I had forwarded Kishan’s emails to my own inbox. This was one of his old friends Kishan had mentioned him in passing, but not much. He said that he had met him in Goa, they talked and shared email addresses not that he had told me, I had guessed as much.

Terius Acaso…email address was TAOfficer. I read it quickly. 

_Kishan,_

__

__

__

_It’s been awhile hasn’t it? Two years since Goa when I drunkenly told you about the crap I dealt with, as a supernatural officer of the law. Vampire domestic disputes, Selkies being naked way too much, but those sirens still haven’t got me yet. Mostly because I put my noise canceling headphones in and blast Britney Spears. Anyway, I have a huge favor to ask of you. You said that you also were good with the freaky shit too. My girlfriend wandered into a cave and well…she got cursed. If you can get yourself to Costa Rica I can provide the car and lodging where I’m at is super cheap. I have about three weeks to finish this but I’d like to get this finished before then. Please, please help. The lodging linked below, and I hope to hear from you soon._

__

_See you then,  
Terius. _

Well heck. I knew I had to help him somehow. I didn’t know how to contact Kishan and Ana anyway. So clearly he needed our help. In curse breaking. I quickly sent a text to Ren and forwarded the email to him, he seemed on edge about it all but agreed. But first we had set up the flight for early tomorrow and I had gotten a lot of my vaccines. Then I emailed the AirBnB and set up the payment and read over the rules. No parties…yeah right like we were the party types.

“Finca Organica…San Luis Grecia.” It was a farm and cabins this wasn’t our usual style but it was cheaper than a hotel and I liked new experiences anyway. After explaining the situation to Nilima and asking her to take over for a few weeks she agreed and helped me pack drilling me on my Spanish which was poor. We arrived in San Jose and I texted Terius that we landed, we would be there and to meet us soon. After a long customs line we finally met our new…friends? What the hell was I to call them?  
It took reading all of the emails that Kishan and Terius had sent each other to convince Ren. If Kishan had trusted him then so did I. And I knew he was telling the truth. Even Ren had agreed and Terius hadn’t asked to come alone or anything shady like that. 

Meeting them was kind of awkward. Terius was tall, dark-skinned, and his short sleeved shirt showed his tattoos. Chess had long blonde hair and she had an inch on me…at least she hadn’t dwarfed me like Anamika had. Terius was all smiles and laughing. Chess looked kind of tense. Like she was worried and wanted to get the hell out of the airport. Ren as usual broke the ice, being the garbist that he was; shook hands and smiled at them both. 

“You’re Terius I presume? The man who needed our help?” 

“Yes and we already have a rental car so if you’re willing to car pool and save time, we can skip over getting you two one and er…” He paused and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“And there’s…things we need to discuss.” Terius finished. 

Ren and I nodded. 

“Of course, and I’m Kelsey and we can leave as soon as you wish.” 

Chess sighed as if she was relived. I knew that she was cursed but I wasn’t sure what it was or when the curse was active. We’d find that out later at the cabins. I wasn’t even sure if it was the same thing as Ren and Kishan’s curse. We quickly hurried out of the airport.  
In the car I realized two things: 1. The traffic was bad. Not in the way that I was used to with the constant fear of crashing and way too fast driving, but it was more of a slow pace as if there was no hurry and we had all the time in the world. The signs said 40-45 kilometers per hour. And it was idle the GPS had said two hours to reach our destination but it took two just to get out of San Jose. Teruis was more relaxed once he got out of the city limits. 

“Oh my god I never thought I’d be so fucking happy to see a double rainbow in hell.” Terius laughed. 

This went way over our heads until Chess explained. 

“It’s two semi-trucks driving at 20 kilometers per hour so at least we are kind of going somewhere.”

Two: The roads were hellish. Although I was sort of used to the roads being not so great in India…this was a whole new ball game. Pot holes galore, and then there were the one lane bridges where you had to wait your turn to cross. There wasn’t even a side of a road, instead there was a deep ditch on the side of the road, I had guessed that it was used to try to deter landslides or falling rocks.  
Finally we had made it to the cabin and the farm. The clouds had hung close to the mountains and the fact that everything had just been left to grow here instead of developing it for homes and buildings had spoken volumes of the way of life here. It was easier, it was more at one with nature…

I just hoped there would be a shower if we were doing a lot of hiking. 

“So this is Finca Organica?” I asked. It was pretty they not only had several crops of bananas, but cabbages and other sorts of vegetables. It seems as if they even did composting.

“Yes, this is it. Nice isn’t? I mean the only thing that’s minor is waiting for the shower to heat up.” Chess said. 

“What exactly are you talking about? Ren asked raising an eyebrow. 

“Well you see the showers here are different. You know how the showers in North America have grounded electrical circuits installed in them?” Chess asked. 

“Um no?” I said. 

Chess shrugged. “It seems only plumbers know about that stuff. Anyway, without these things you are not to touch the showerhead.” 

“Why is that?” Ren asked. 

“Well this is called a suicide shower. They are common in third world countries and Latin America and Asia. I’m not sure how to explain it without going into too much detail.” Chess stammered. 

I smiled thinking of Mr. Kadam and how he knew a lot of things that others didn’t, maybe this woman had some of his spirit inside of her too. 

“No, please go on it would help us to understand and I’d rather not make this trip awkward by not bathing.” Ren joked. 

“Okay. The showers here don’t have hot water heaters, so everything is heated inside the showerhead with the coils and you must not touch it while bathing otherwise you’ll get shocked at best and die at worst.” Terius explained. 

Great death by showering, just how I always wanted to die. Not as glamorous as death via giant mythical squid or giant shark.

“Okay so showers could kill us should I worry about gangs, drug runners, kidnappers too? And animals?” I said with a great dollop of sarcasm. 

“Well not the gangs, and drug running is mostly in Colombia and Nicaragua don’t you guys watch Narcos?” Chess asked. 

“Um no.” 

“You should it’s a good series, as for animals; there are a lot of snakes and spiders I’ve had to kill a few because Terius was a baby about them.” 

“Sweetheart, you’re not helping me out with my masculinity!” Terius snapped. 

“I’m sure Ren has fears he’d rather not say too, right Ren?” 

I knew that we’d have to deal with a lot of arguing…I didn’t like that Ren had to be caught in the middle. And the way Chess acted around him was the oddest thing I had seen. I was used to women staring at him, and throwing themselves around Ren. But Chess, she acted like he was just an average man she was polite, yet kept herself closed off at least when it came to Ren. I knew she was comfortable around me. We had shared a few inside jokes already. 

“Anyway shall we begin?” Terius asked. 

“Begin what exactly?” asked Ren. 

“Well the sun is setting so that means my curse is starting.” 

“Oh right your curse the whole reason we came here.” I rolled my eyes in Ren’s direction. 

As the sun lowered over the mountains I watched as Chess transformed into the shiniest Costa Rican Rainbow Boa I had ever seen. Needless to say I kinda freaked out too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two notes: Okay so the hipster cabin is an actual place and yes I loved it. In Costa Rica there's actually no A/C or heating but when I was there it was cold.  
> San Jose traffic is shit. Never again. Four hours at a crawl to get out of the city is too freaking long.  
> The double rainbow in hell is a saying my boyfriend used often while driving. He'd rant so much about it that I'd be laughing like 80% of the time while going anywhere. Still not as scary as driving down the Smokies in Tennessee with no gas and using only the momentum. I will include how Chess and Terius met in the next chapter.  
> Suicide showers are a thing go google it. Despite that 10/10 would go back.


	3. Chess' Curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! Sorry for the lengthy hiatus between chapters! Currently I had gotten a job and am looking for apartments. So that along with a lot of adventures with the boyfriend have taken up my time. But no fear I'll be continuing this.

Chapter 3: Chess’ Curse. 

I wasn’t exactly shocked when Kelsey freaked out over my transformation. She didn’t seem like the type of girl who liked snakes. But I was sure that she might have liked me at least. I had thought she liked me, we had shared a few jokes so far. And there was the fact that I could still somehow speak while I was…like this. Not by opening my mouth like how some stupid media portrayed talking animals. So while my ‘lips’ and mouth didn’t move I could still speak and my words were heard, Take that Kaa!

“Well I do sort of deserve this I _did_ mouth off to a shaman after touching his things; granted his things were a hoard of treasure.” I rolled my eyes. Stupid, greedy, dragon like wizard. 

“I’m sure he was Smaug in another universe sweetheart.” Terius said. 

Yeah, and I wanted to either put an arrow in his stupid breast or behead him. 

I mentally sighed, this wasn’t the most annoying thing in my life (that was reserved for another thing) so far, but this was an inconvenience and a fucking major one. I wanted this curse to end, I wanted to snuggle with Terius at night (and do more with him preferably not always in the mornings like we have been) and not have to be rushed out of places before sundown. I wanted to go out dancing in clubs and…I…just wanted to not be a snake. And to have my vacation back. We were supposed to be having fun not getting mixed up into this shit. Poor Terius and I wanted a break from the supernatural for crying out loud! 

“So because you sassed off to a powerful guy he had cursed you?” Kelsey asked. 

“I can relate to that. Although I couldn’t speak like you could.” Ren stated. 

“Wait what? What the shit biscuit? Can you rewind and explain? Kishan just told me you fought demons.” Terius said. 

Ren gave us the short version of their story, how he and his younger brother Kishan had been cursed after fighting over a girl from a kingdom they were at war with in the late 1600’s or was it 1700’s? Either way Ren was arranged to marry this princess or noblewoman and her father had cursed them. 

“What did you do get her with child? Peep on her while she was bathing?” Terius joked. Ren turned bright red and Kelsey giggled. 

“NO!” He shouted as his face flushed. 

“He’s not the peeping tom cat type…usually.” Kelsey rolled her eyes at some memory.

“Excuse you Sundari, I was trying to make sure you were safe from that possible concussion!” Ren huffed. 

“Oh yeah?! And what about when I first met Phet? You didn’t have to watch me bathe in tiger form you know!” 

“Does it really matter now? After everything?” Ren asked and batted his big blue eyes at his wife. 

“You better not try this shit with me Teri.” I hissed, quite literally too. 

After that bit of batter that was fit to be in a modern day Shakespeare retelling Ren went on with his story. His betrothed at the time had died in an accident, (Pfft more like her mage father had her killed because she finally had enough of his shit) and then he and his brother were cursed by an evil power hungry mage. Later on they were blessed by the Hindu goddess and demon slayer Durga. And after finding Kelsey they were finally able to get their human selves back. 

“Wow quite an epic tale.” I said. Terius had started to laugh for whatever reason maybe he had the ‘Stupids’ as my uncle had put them. It was when you burst into random laughter over something you had just remembered, or just because. 

“What’s up with him?” Ren asked. 

“Search me.” I said. 

“Tale, or tail, either way you made a great pun Chess.” 

I was glad and relieved to hear him laugh. He hadn’t laughed in days, and I didn’t realize how much I had missed hearing that. Maybe having these two around was a good thing. I then noticed that Kelsey had her notebook and journal out. I guessed that she like Terius, had been taking down notes of the different forms of folklore and myths. I slithered over to her and asked if she had done her research. 

“Actually I have, but can you tell me more about your curse and what we need to do in order to break it?” Kelsey asked. 

Terius tossed a composition notebook that he had bought at the local Maxi Palí, he had filled it with notes which I had read countless times and bitched about his hand writing.   
‘I’m left handed. Fuck off.’ He stated. 

Ren and Kelsey had read through them rather quickly. 

“So…a flooded forest huh?” Ren asked. 

“Yep.” Terius responded. 

“And this guy didn’t give you any clues at all?!” 

“He did mention something about the quote ‘where the clouds touch the earth and it starting with a M.” Terius responded. 

Everyone blinked in disbelief save for myself because in my current form I didn’t have any eyelids. 

“And you kept this info completely missing from us because…?!” Ren asked. 

“I just read back over my notes, duh.” 

“Monte Verde.” Kelsey said quietly. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Monte Verde it’s the cloud forest that makes sense. That’s where we are to go.” Ren drawled. 

Well, at least now we had a destination in mind for tomorrow that was better than no leads at all. 

“So would you like to do more research tomorrow during the drive or just wing it?” I asked Kelsey. 

“Well more research can’t hurt. Although I usually find myself overly prepared or under.” She said with a yawn. 

Great…just fucking great! Because that was totally what I wanted to hear from people who had spent two or three years breaking a 300 something year old curse and wrecking bad guys shit up. Ah well. It wasn’t like they were professionals or some shit. If I wanted those I would’ve called in the Winchester Brothers and their awkward pet angel. But now I had Kelsey and Ren Rajaram, and they had done this before I had faith in them. I wondered if they had put professional curse breakers on their resumes. All jokes aside, I felt better knowing that it wasn’t just Terius and I anymore. Having more people to drag in had given me hope like we could really be successful. For the first time in a while I not only woke up to cuddling Terius in my human form, but also with hope. 

And maybe I had also woken him up with a blowie.


	4. Monte Verde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang travels to the cloud forest! And along the way receive help from the oddest of sources: our bitchy young Shaman. Chess makes bad references, and shit will be going down.

Kelsey 

The cold chill down my back had woken me up, shocking considering that I had woken up tangled in Ren’s arms. I was still aching from the love making last night, the warmth was only there for the covered parts of myself. I was not sure where I was for a few minutes, then I recognized the open floor plan of the cabin and the sun reaching over the mountains. I was reminded of the phrase “rosy fingered dawn” from the Odyssey. Oh yes…Costa Rica. I then remembered that there wasn’t any heating or AC here, hence the chills. Shit. I stumbled to the shower and waited for it to turn hot, I wasn’t picky about it being ‘boiling lava hot’ like most women, but damn I was NOT going to shower in the cold. On the window sill I had noticed that they had their own shampoo and body wash, which smelled amazing. If it wasn’t for the ban for liquids on the airplanes, I’d have ask to buy it. 

Drying off and grumbling about waiting naked in the cold, I saw that Ren had a productive morning of making coffee and cutting up fruit for breakfast. Apparently he had borrowed the many creamers and milk from Terius and Chess. The coffee was warm and rather good, warming my throat and stomach in the way I enjoyed. 

“This isn’t the good stuff, they export that outside of the country, and maybe they sell it to hipster grocery stores or the snobby ones.”

“Mm. Well, if this is the ‘bad’ or ‘bleh’ coffee then how does the exported stuff taste?” I asked.

“Oh, magical I bet.” Said Ren with a smile as he put chocolate with chiles flavored creamer into his cup. Even his coffee had to be spicy…

“I’m glad we’re starting our mornings like this, the misty mountains around us, sipping our coffee and having a healthy breakfast.” I yawned as he handed me a bowl of sliced mangoes and papaya with a sort of sweet bread and honey on top. 

“It’s a shame there’s no peanut butter.” He grinned. I rolled my eyes he had been human for so long now and still he couldn’t get enough of peanut butter. 

“Yeah but here you notice so many little things, like how utterly semi-wild and peaceful it is.” Ren just nodded as he sipped his coffee. 

“Also our hostess dropped by, she was incredibly nice, and glad I could speak Spanish. Apparently you can pick our own vegetables here and pay for them at the big house.” 

“Really?” 

“Yep I hope that Terius and Chess are ready, we have about a three hour drive ahead of us.” 

“Ren it’s only 6 am. Aside from the drive, why do we need to be up so early?” I balked. 

“Well see our hostess had told me that everyone gets up early an hour or two before the sunrises and that nearly everyone and everything save for walking the neighborhoods and social visits stops when the sun goes down.” Ren explained. 

“Huh I didn’t know that.” Said as I finished my breakfast and wished there was more coffee. 

“Shall we go see if they are up yet?” Ren asked offering his arm like a gentleman in a period drama. I took it feeling only a little old fashioned walking this way, this was how girls walked with their best friends, and instead I grabbed his hand. Ren understood why. 

It turned out that they were up, and it was incredibly awkward to hear, and catch them in the act of…rather rigorous bedroom activities. They quickly showered, ate, and packed as we all loaded up into the car. 

Chess was only a little bit cranky as she sipped from a thermos. 

“Should’ve fucking poured an energy drink into my fucking coffee.” She grumbled. 

“But wouldn’t you die?” I asked. 

“I once put at least 10 black coffee shots into a latte.” She said.

“How many are you supposed to take?” I asked. 

“Two.” 

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. 

The ride to MonteVerde was long and somewhat slow. The roads were mostly dirt the farther we went, and we also found ourselves and many others, at a standstill waiting for a rock slide to be cleared. Just let me tell you this, sitting in a car for an hour while we waited to clear it wasn’t exactly fun. But we all learned that everything in this country was about rolling with it.  
Pura Vida indeed.

Finally reaching the cloud forest felt like such a victory after that. We followed a few well-made paths trying to find this flooded forest. It felt like hours hiking at least we had come prepared with how cold it was. Chess wasn’t feeling so well after a bit, and Terius wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. Just as we were about to turn around and head back to the car, a mocking, deep voice asked.

“You humans really can’t see what’s so plainly in front of you can you? The cursed girl could her pain is an indicator of how close you were to the entrance.”

That was when I had realized we were face to face with the shaman that had cursed Chess. Or rather a shadow of him. He wasn’t quite see through but he wasn’t completely solid. He was _young_ possibly our age and that was what had thrown me off. I had figured we were facing someone older. Like Lord Voldemort older. But his eyes...they were ancient, old, had the Thousand Yard Stare like he had seen some intense shit. 

“Oh hey there Ancient One, nice to see you again. Don’t you have to rip out a person’s heart or something or is that in the next half hour? And you squeezed tormenting us in? How flattering.” Chess spouted off. 

He rolled his eyes and turned to Terius. 

“Is she always like this?” He asked. 

“Only in pain, on a certain times of the month and or year, and days ending in Y.” Terius joked.

“Well then I have certain gifts and advice to give you.” The Shaman started. 

“What are they?” Ren asked. 

The Shaman just smiled and snapped his fingers. 

“For one I have lifted the glamour I left upon this place. You now see it for what it is.” 

And did we the forest that was below us was indeed flooded the waters were an oddly crystal clear blue.

“As for the rest I have weapons and you tiger,” He smiled coldly at Ren. 

“Are given your powers back for this task, and you girl, have the ability to not only change size; but I’m also granting you venom, you’ll need it.” 

“Oh great I always wanted a vicious murdering symbiote.” Chess replied. 

‘This is so not the time for Marvel movie references.’ I thought. I glanced down at the weapons, a bullwhip like something from an Indiana Jones movie, and two oddly shaped clubs with what looked like obsidian “blades” sticking out. (I found out later that it was called a maquahuitl.) And bows and quivers of arrows. These were familiar to me and it seemed to Chess as well the bullwhip was comfortable on her hip and in her hand. What had she been doing before this curse? And before she was dating Terius?

“One last thing,” The Shaman said while tossing four coins to us. “These will allow you to get to the entrance and allow you to breathe do not lose them. Follow the Xolo dogs.” 

“What’s a Xolo dog?” I asked. 

“Think of the trash dog Dante in _Cocoa_.” Chess said. 

There was no end to her pop culture references was there?

“So why are you helping us out like this?” Terius asked being wary as he strapped the ancient sword to his back, Ren did the same. 

“It benefits me to, I guess I’m what you nerds call ‘Chaotic Neutral’ I’ll help out others I don’t exactly like as long as I get something out of it. Can’t get out of this cave with you lot dead now can I? Good luck.” He snapped his fingers once more and vanished. 

Well. Nothing more to do than to move forward. Gripping the golden coins we hit the water with an icy shock at first then the temperature adjusted to be as warm as bath water. We reached the bottom and stood before a grand gate that was rather eroded with age. Pressing both mine and Chess’ palms to the handprints opened them and we entered the city looking like drowned cats. Although in Ren’s case his was more literal. 

We were standing in a city well preserved by time. It was as if the conquistadors had never conquered this one.  
I looked to my friends as Terius kissed Chess’ forehead, and Ren squeezed my hand. 

“Shall we begin?” Terius asked.

Notes: I actually had a literal trash dog he was a chihuahua named Sparky. RIP you weird possibly gay pupper. Also Stok's coffee shots are what Chess is talking about great for college students who need that shit. I know I did. Monte Verde was really beautiful and we managed to get really soaked and muddy. 10/10 would go back but with boots.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay explaining time! Chess and Terius are mine and Dr_Floofers characters we made up for a Mass Effect role play, but then we made Terius human in others. I'm not sure who thought of making him a Pacific Islander first...maybe it was my love tattoos? ANYWAY. Costa Rica is hella pretty and actually pretty cheap to travel to, provided you have the passport and the flights, the thing that set me back the most? Travel vaccines. Seriously like $400 bucks down the drain. R.I.P. my savings, but I didn't get Yellow Fever, typhoid, or malaria.  
> And yes I did stay in a hipster AirBnB cabin in the mountains it was a farm. And the views were awesome! It was called Finica Orangica which I'll talk about in the next chapter.  
> Quetzalcoatl is an old Aztec god who's the god of rain weather and arts and crafts. And he's my favorite Old God for a reason, I mean he's a big fuck you dragon how is that not metal AF?


End file.
